Electron Kinetics of Weakly Ionized HF Plasmas. II. Decoupling in the Fourier Hierarchy and Simplified Kinetics at Higher Frequencies

In a preceding paper based upon the time dependent Boltzmann equation the electron kinetics of the weakly ionized HF plasma was investigated firstly by a time‐consuming direct treatment and secondly by the Fourier expansion for the established HF state. Continuing these investigations, the decoupling of the equation determining the period average of the isotropic distribution from the other equations of the system for the harmonics of the isotropic distribution is quantitatively studied for a neon plasma as a typical representative. In this way the applicability of a simplified approach for the electron kinetics in the HF plasma could be justified and a former estimate for a field frequency above which this kinetics can be used could be confirmed. The generalization of this simpler description to arbitrary HF fields and to HF plasmas in other gases is discussed. Employing this approach, the electron kinetics is systematically investigated for the HF plasma in Ne for wide ranges of the HF field amplitude and field frequency.